A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration cannot use US foreign policy interests to justify its detention of Columbia University student and pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil.
However, the judge said on Wednesday in his order that the ruling would not take effect until Friday, June 13.
District Judge Michael Farbiarz also gave the government until Friday to appeal the decision. He also required Khalil to post a $1 bond.
Khalil was arrested on March 8 after the State Department revoked his green card under a little-used provision of US immigration law granting the US secretary of state the power to seek the deportation of any noncitizen whose presence in the country is deemed adverse to US foreign policy interests.
He has since been held in immigration detention in Louisiana.
On May 28, Farbiarz had ruled that expelling Khalil from the US on those grounds was likely unconstitutional.
First of many
His arrest was the first in a long crackdown on pro-Palestine voices in the US.
A few days after Khalil's arrest, Trump's claim came due after another pro-Palestine student, Badar Khan Suri, an Indian researcher at Georgetown University, was arrested. His attorney said he was arrested because of the Palestinian identity of his wife. He was released in May.
After the arrest of Suri, authorities went after another pro-Palestine student, Momodou Taal, asking him to turn himself in.
On March 25, Yunseo Chung, a Columbia University student, said she sued the Trump administration to stop her deportation from the US over her participation in a pro-Palestine protest last Spring.
Also on March 25, Rumeysa Ozturk, who is a Tufts University PhD student, was kidnapped in broad daylight by US authorities over criticising Israel's carnage in Gaza.
On April 14, authorities arrested Mohsen Mahdawi during his citizenship interview before he was released on April 30.
